Images of Plague and Pestilence

SIXTEENTH CENTURY ESSAYS & STUDIES SERIES

General EditorRAYMOND A. MENTZER

Montana State University–Bozeman

Editorial Board of Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies

ELAINE BEILIN

Framingham State College

MIRIAM U. CHRISMAN

University of Massachusetts, Emerita

BARBARA B. DIEFENDORF

Boston University

PAULA FINDLEN

Stanford University

SCOTT H. HENDRIX

Princeton Theological Seminary

JANE CAMPBELL HUTCHISON

University of Wisconsin–Madison

CHRISTIANE JOOST-GAUGIER

University of New Mexico, Emerita

ROBERT M. KINGDON

University of Wisconsin, Emeritus

ROGER MANNING

Cleveland State University

MARY B. MCKINLEY

University of Virginia

HELEN NADER

University of Arizona

CHARLES G. NAUERT

University of Missouri, Emeritus

THEODORE K. RABB

Princeton University

MAX REINHART

University of Georgia

JOHN D. ROTH

Goshen College

ROBERT V. SCHNUCKER

Truman State University, Emeritus

NICHOLAS TERPSTRA

University of Toronto

MERRY WIESNER-HANKS

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Habent sua fata libelli

Plague AND

Pestilence

I M A G E S OF

Iconography and Iconology

CHRISTINE M. BOECKL

SIXTEENTH CENTURY ESSAYS & STUDIESVOLUME LIII

Copyright © 2000 by Truman State University PressKirksville, Missouri 63501-4221 USAtsup@truman.eduAll rights reservedPrinted by Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBoeckl, Christine M., 1933

Images of plague and pestilence : iconography and iconology /Christine M. Boeckl.

p. cm. — (Sixteenth century essays & studies ; 53)Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-943549-72-8 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-943549-85-X (pbk. : alk.

paper)1. Plague in art. 2. Plague in literature. I. Title. II. Series

N8243.S5 B63 2000704.9'496169232—dc21

00-041760

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any format by any means withoutwritten permission. The paper in this publication meets or exceeds the minimum requirements of the AmericanNational Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate-rials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.

Text set in Adobe Garamond 11/13 by Michael Murawski

Cover: St. Sebastian Intercedes during the Plague, Josse Lieferinxe, 1497–99. The Walters ArtGallery, Baltimore.

Contents

Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Chapter 1. Medical Aspects of Bubonic Plague and Yersinia pestisInfections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2. Literary Sources of Plague Iconography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 3. Visual Sources of Plague Iconography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 4. The Black Death and Its Immediate Aftermath (1347–1500) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 5. The Sixteenth-Century Renaissance (1500–1600). . . . . . . . . 91

Chapter 6. The Tridentine World: Plague Paintings as Implementations of Catholic Reforms (1600–1775) . . . . . . 107

Chapter 7. Revival of Plague Themes and Modern Reverberations (1776–1990s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Chapter 8. Plague Imagery, Past and Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Appendix Plague Texts That Influenced Visual Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203

Scripture References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210

vi

Illustrations

Fig. 1.1. Photograph of a cervical bubo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Fig. 1.2. Plague Victim. Detail of St. Sebastian Intercedes during thePlague, Josse Lieferinxe, 1497–99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Fig. 1.3. Detail of Plague Scene, unknown artist, before c. 1518 . . . . . .21

Fig. 1.4. Photograph of axillary bubo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Fig. 1.5. Detail of St. Roch Cured by an Angel, unknown artist, c. 1490 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Fig. 1.6. Photograph of a femoral bubo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Fig. 1.7. St. Gennaro Frees Naples from the Plague, Luca Giordano, 1662. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Fig. 1.8. Plague Victims, woodcut, from Francesco Petrarca, Artzney Beyde Gluck (Augsburg, 1532). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Fig. 1.9. Doctor’s Visit to a Plague Victim, woodcut, 1512 . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Fig. 1.10. Plague Doctor in Rome, engraving, P. Fürst, 1656 . . . . . . . . . . .29

Fig. 1.11. Carnival in Rome, Lingelbach, c. 1656 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Fig. 1.12. Piazza Mercatello during the Plague of 1656, Micco Spadaro, 1660s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Fig. 3.1. The Morbetto, engraving, Marcantonio Raimondi afterRaphael, 1520s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Fig. 3.2. Plague at Ashdod, engraving, S. Picart after Poussin, 1630s? . . .50

Fig. 3.3. St. Charles Administers the Viaticum to a Plague Victim, engraving, A. Bossé after P. Mignard, 1670 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Fig. 3.4. St. Sebastian, woodcut, 1437 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Illustrations vii

Fig. 3.5. Plague of Epirus, engraving, Audran after Pierre Mignard, 1670s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Fig. 3.6. Peste/Pestilentia, engraving, Cesare Ripa, 1750s . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Fig. 3.7. St. Roch, engraving, Paul Pontius after P. P. Rubens, c. 1623. . . 67

Fig. 4.1. Triumph of Death, Buonamico Buffalmacco? c. 1330s . . . . . . .70

Fig. 4.2. St. Sebastian Intercedes during the Plague, Josse Lieferinxe, 1497–99. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

Fig. 4.3. Flagellants, Limbourg Brothers, 1412 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Fig. 4.4. Vision of St. Michael, Limbourg Brothers, 1412 . . . . . . . . . . . .84

Fig. 4.5. St. Gregory’s Procession, Limbourg Brothers, 1413–16,finished by Jean Colombe, 1485. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Fig. 4.6. St. Nicholas Saving Florence, Giovanni di Paolo, 1456 . . . . . . . .87

Fig. 4.7. Christ the Judge, woodcut, title page of Philipp Culmacher,Regimen wider die Pest, before 1500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Fig. 5.1. Madonna di Foligno, Raphael, c. 1513 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Fig. 5.2. Gozzi Altarpiece, Titian, 1520 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

Fig. 5.3. Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, Giorgio Vasari,1536. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Fig. 5.4. St. Roch Ministering to the Plague Victims, Tintoretto, 1549 . . . 103

Fig. 6.1. Lutheran Eucharistic Feast, Otto Wagenfeldt, c. 1650 . . . . . . .112

Fig. 6.2. St. Charles Administers Extreme Unction, Benedetto Luti, 1713. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Fig. 6.3. St. Charles Leads Procession of the Holy Nail, drawing, Pietro da Cortona, 1667. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119

Fig. 6.4. Blessed Bernard Tolomei Comforting Victims of the Plague, follower of Giuseppe Maria Crespi, eighteenth century . . . . .121

Fig. 6.5. Death and the Priest, woodcut, Hans Holbein, before 1538 . . . 122

Fig. 6.6. St. Charles Administers the Viaticum to a Plague Victim, Josef Zirckler, 1785 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

viii IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

Fig. 6.7. Detail of Allegory of the Jesuit Order, unknown artist, 1617. . .126

Fig. 6.8. The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier, P. P. Rubens, 1617. . . . . . .127

Fig. 6.9. Pallione del Voto, Guido Reni, 1630 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

Fig. 7.1. Napoleon in the Pesthouse of Jaffa, Antoine-Jean Gros, 1804. . . 139

Fig. 7.2. Belsunce Making a Vow to the Sacred Heart during the Plague in Marseilles, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1854 . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Fig. 7.3. Plague in Early Christian Rome, Jules-Elie Delaunay, 1869 . . .144

Fig. 7.4. The Great Plague of London, relief etching, William Blake, 1793 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

Fig. 7.5. Rescued from the Plague, London 1655, Frank Topham,1898 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148

Fig. 7.6. Plague, from “On Death, Part II,” print, Max Klinger, 1903 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

ix

Preface

I gratefully acknowledge two generous grants from the Research ServicesCouncil of the University of Nebraska, which helped me pursue my studiesover the last seven years and bring this book to completion. I am also grate-ful to the Graduate School of the University of Maryland for granting me adissertation fellowship in 1989 that funded the original project. A numberof scholars have shared their knowledge and given me valuable informationfor this interdisciplinary study. My sincerest thanks go first and foremost tothe medical experts: Profs. Henri Mollaret and Jacqueline Brossollet, PasteurInstitute, Paris; John Bennett, M.D., National Institutes of Health, Wash-ington, D.C.; Thomas Butler, M.D., Chief of the Division of Infectious Dis-ease, Texas Tech University; and Franz Enzinger, M.D., Walter ReedHospital. In the field of theology I am beholden to Profs. Helen Rolfson,O.S.F., St. John’s University, and P. Lenders, S.J., University of Antwerp. Iam particularly grateful to Professor Jean Caswell, University of Maryland,for her unflagging support of my art historical research and her editorialassistance, and to Dee Fischer, who spent endless hours preparing my manu-script for the publisher. Thanks are also due to my friends Drs. Edith Wyss,Shirley Bennett, Sally Wages, Lisa Hartjens, and Norma Uemura. Further,the expertise of my colleague Professor James May, University of Nebraska,who helped me with the production of some of the photographic images,was much appreciated. Finally, I thank my family for their help and patienceduring the years of research and the writing of the text.

Recent interest in epidemiology has generated a plethora of publicationson the history of pestilential diseases, but studies on plague imagery arerather rare. In fact, the catalogue of the Library of Congress lists only a fewbook titles under “Plague in Art,” none in English.1 There are, of course,numerous published journal articles and some recent dissertations that dis-cuss plague art.

Research on bubonic plague and its relation to the visual arts goes back toEmile Mâle’s studies of the 1930s. His seminal work on plague iconography

x IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

(image description) was also the first of its kind to offer iconological inter-pretations (the meaning of images). Since then, studies on medical aspectsand plague iconography were written by physicians, such as Roger Seiler, andthe majority of publications were issued by two medical historians, HenriMollaret and Jacqueline Brossollet—the first scholars to investigate scientificfacts recorded in plague images. As a team they published nearly forty essaysand books dedicated to the pictorial documentation of bubonic plague andhave amassed one of the largest photo collections of plague imagery. Severalyears ago I was invited to peruse their holdings and found their collegial sup-port invaluable for my own plague studies. Madame Brossollet described formy book some of their research experiences, the successes as well as the frus-trations encountered in their quest. Shortly before her untimely death, shereviewed the essay. The scientific community lost in her an energetic scholar.I mourn a dear friend and mentor.

�

Jacqueline Brossollet (Pasteur Institute, Paris) on PioneeringPlague Scholarship, translated by Michelle Rayburn

For many years there was a wide gap between the history of art and the his-tory of medicine. So, when in 1966, at the Twentieth International Congressof Medical History, I presented twenty-four plague illustrations and demon-strated their importance for our understanding of what the ancient epidem-ics were like, a number of doctors mockingly asked what credence could begiven to artists, too often carried away by imagination. Several years after thefirst conference, while studying three canvases depicting the biblical plagueof the Philistines—then attributed to Nicolas Poussin—I asked AnthonyBlunt’s advice about some inherent differences among the paintings. Mydoubts concerned the knowledge that in 1630 Poussin lived in Rome, whilebubonic plague ravaged Milan and Venice. He answered me courteously thatthese “details” were of no interest to him. Yet, these “details” in the works ofartists who experienced an epidemic firsthand became the focus of our initialresearch.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Professor Henri H. Mollaret, director ofthe Plague Section at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and a World Health Orga-nization expert on this disease, set out to explore the history of previous epi-demics to better understand those experienced today. For far from merelybeing an illness of Europe and the Middle Ages, bubonic plague continues to

Preface xi

menace humanity. Even though the staggering numbers of human fatalitiesof earlier times have ceased—as the result of diverse medical achievementssuch as hygiene, vaccination, and antibiotics that provide protection andtreatment—bubonic plague remains a potential danger. Although this dis-ease is an epizootic that primarily affects numerous species of rodents, thereis no guarantee that there will not be future plague epidemics also amonghumans. As H. H. Mollaret has proven, its bacillus, Yersinia pestis, remainspotent for years, buried in the soil, making the disease ineradicable.

For centuries, numerous medical treatises have studied bubonic plaguebut they have not provided conclusive answers to the questions raised bymodern epidemiology. Since earlier doctors attributed the outbreaks to air-borne miasmas or to divine wrath or to the harmful conjunctions of planets,the role of the rodents and ectoparasites was never taken into consideration.We, therefore, have searched archives and chronicles seeking informationdescribing the illness. To overcome the paucity of information, we also haveconsulted visual testimony of artists who lived during an outbreak of plague,examining primary documents that reflected what their eyes had observed.

Our investigation and fieldwork were extensive, taking us to curators ofmuseums and to curés of parishes. We asked them to look at painted orsculpted works they had in their care. I must admit, the responses to our firstletters were disappointing, probably because the relationship of plague andthe arts had not been previously established—except possibly for ex-votos.But a second mailing, specifying precisely what symbols or representationscould associate a work of art with plague (the arrow, the angel with thesword, the danse macabre, the Madonna Misericordia, certain plague patrons,“the sick mother and her child,” and others), produced results and allowed usto establish an important collection of photographic documentations.

To recognize which of the paintings displayed plague-related themes, westudied the above-mentioned characteristic motifs as well as sources for alle-gorical figures. For example, in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1603) “Plague” wasdescribed as an emaciated old woman. The personification was portrayed assuch by G. LeCourt in the plague ex-voto of 1630 for the high altar of SantaMaria della Salute, Venice, and again in the Viennese plague monumenterected to commemorate the epidemic of 1679. Until these types of allegori-cal figures were established, “plague” was indicated in other ways. The cate-gorization of motifs became a highly amusing game for us. However, in allearnestness, the painters unknowingly revealed to us some aspects of the dis-ease which they themselves did not even understand, since the symptomshad been ignored by the plague physicians. Often the painters represented

xii IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

what they observed in the appearance of the sick, and their renderingshelped open our eyes to the past. For example, not until the end of the lastcentury did it become common knowledge that bubonic plague was trans-mitted by fleas. The Pasteur microbiologist P. L. Simond, while observingscars of flea bites on plague patients, established the essential role of the par-asite in 1898. Yet centuries before that discovery, some artists, B. Luini, Th.van der Schuer, and V. H. Janssens, had represented these plague marks, pus-tules or charbons pesteux. From other images we learned of the existence ofcertain clinical forms of past plagues, such as the sudden deaths striking theparticipants of the Gregorian propitiatory procession painted by the Lim-bourg brothers, or the grave digger’s bubo portrayed by J. Lieferinxe, or thepseudointoxicated state of certain victims seen staggering in the paintings ofM. Spadaro, as well as many others.

In our numerous articles, as in our presentations at conventions or med-ical conferences, Professor Mollaret and I always based our findings on visualdocumentation, and we found recognition by our audiences who long agostopped smirking. “Works of art are of infinite solitude; nothing is worsethan criticism as a means of trying to understand them,” wrote R. M. Rilketo a young poet on 23 April 1903. His opinion is debatable when applied tothe art evoking old epidemics. Texts and images complement and reinforceone another; the mass graves of the Neapolitan Piazza Mercatello during thebubonic plague epidemic of 1656, painted by M. Spadaro, find an echo inthe terrifying photographs taken during the Manchurian outbreak of 1911.

In this Dantesque hell, filled with horrifying plague scenes, I had fromthe beginning a Virgil as my guide to whom I want to pay homage, all themore because he seems to be somewhat forgotten—Emile Mâle. In his workson religious art from the twelfth to the end of the eighteenth centuries, hediscussed the presence of plague in detail, yet simply enough for us to under-stand. Because the scourge was always linked to heaven, religious art advo-cated atonement; prayers and processions were offered to spare a certain townfrom plague, to ask that the epidemic cease, or to relate the thanksgiving ofsurvivors. These acts of faith were addressed to those who were believed to becapable of appeasing the anger of God. I counted 110 intercessory saints whowere credited with having played this mediating role. Paintings and sculp-tures for each one of them recalled the communal spirit of a certain region, ina specific year. I am well aware of the restrictions imposed on the artists bythose who commissioned these religious works—the choice of the patronsaints, the implied meaning of the scenes pertaining to the Church or confra-ternities, along with the donors’ wishes—but, by the same token, these facts

Preface xiii

also are guaranties of the documented scene’s authenticity.For years I followed my passion, cataloguing all images related to

bubonic plague of the city of Venice and the Veneto. Thanks to our efforts,the director of the Fine Arts Academy in Venice, who in 1978 searched foran exhibition theme, decided on the title “Venezia e la peste.” For this pur-pose we resurrected numerous artworks from the vaults of dusty sacristies,canvases which had been darkened by centuries of candle soot. Theseneglected images needed to be cleaned and restored before they could beexhibited. At times we made new discoveries, or rediscovered forgottenworks; also we found images that had not been recognized previously asplague pictures. From December 1979 until May 1980, the show in thePalazzo Ducale attracted large crowds from Milan, Florence, and Rome, asthe officials of Assessorato alla Cultura e Belle Arti de Venezia had predicted.Today, the exhibition catalogue, to which we contributed several chapters, isone of the few illustrated plague publications in book format. In 1994 wealso published the book Pourquoi la Peste? Le rat, la puce et le bubon, whichshows art along with documentation of modern plague epidemics.

At this point, I also wish to acknowledge the staff of Antwerp’s Muséedes Beaux-Arts, who showed great interest in our inquiry and gave us theopportunity to publish repeatedly in the museum’s yearbook. In the issue ofthe 1965 Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten we summarized,in a hundred pages and sixty-eight illustrations, the main themes of plagueimages as well as the often unrecognized influence they exerted. I rememberone of Antwerp’s museum curators remarking to me that he now understoodwhy the charitable confraternities had added another duty as a new obliga-tion for their lay members. Until then, their charges had been to clothe thenaked, to visit the prisoners, to assist orphans, to nurse the sick, to feed thehungry. After the fifteenth century, “to bury the dead” became anotherrequired “act of mercy.” This duty became important because towns struckby plague found their streets littered with bodies, and the grave diggers wereunable to handle the task alone.

Additionally, we helped rectify existing misinformation; for example, apanel painting by Giovanni di Paolo, dated to the mid-fifteenth century, hadlong been displayed in the Louvre under the title chosen by Louis Haute-coeur, Procession of Pope Clement VI to Castel Sant’Angelo in 1348. We knewthat this was an inaccurate statement because Pope Clement VI, who indeedhad been pope during the plague of 1348, lived in Avignon where thepapacy resided from 1305 until 1378; he never went to Rome. In reality,Giovanni di Paolo represented the procession of Gregory I, as described in

xiv IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

the Golden Legend, which took place during the Roman plague of 590. Afterthe publication of our article in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1969, the Lou-vre agreed to modify the painting’s caption. Similarly, visitors to the samemuseum could hear, on an audio tour, an erroneous commentary on A. J.Gros’s Napoleon in the Plague House of Jaffa. Most likely, its author did notknow that Bonaparte had made two visits to the plague-stricken, one inMarch of 1799, in the euphoria of conquest, the other in May of the sameyear, when the army was in full retreat. The commentator evoked the secondvisit to the hospital, while the painter had illustrated the first encounter withthe plague victims. Thus there were certain discrepancies between what thespectators saw and what they heard on tape. Following the publication ofour study of this canvas, in the 1968 edition of Antwerp’s Jaarboek, theaudio guide was modified. In another instance, due to his thorough know-ledge of seventeenth-century medical texts, H. H. Mollaret could prove inhis preface to a new edition of Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year(which included several illustrations) that the author had not just inventedthe details about the epidemic but had utilized medical documents to sup-port his narrative. Many literary critics had dismissed the novel as pure fic-tion. For a long time they refused to appreciate it for what it was, a report ofthe tragic events which befell London in 1665.

I have always informed those who consulted our rich documents of thedanger of becoming totally immersed by the far-reaching ramifications ofthe plague topic, which touches on all domains of life. Its diverse manifesta-tions—often unexpected—do not exist in the history of any other illness. Ihave frequently expressed this by saying, “The history of plague is a subjectinviting possible failure.” Christine M. Boeckl has averted in her book mostof the common pitfalls of the vast, interdisciplinary field of plague studies bysetting rigorous parameters for her investigation, by avoiding temptingdigressions, by targeting the essence of a subject both abundant and yetneglected. I have found in her publications the confirmation of what Moll-aret and I originally pioneered in our own research, and I am sure this know-ledge will help her readers, as it has ours, to discern more fully the meaningin plague images.

1

Introduction

From the late fourteenth century on, European artists created an extensivebody of images which related to the devastating effects of plague epidemics.In paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and other media, artists producedcomplex and emotionally charged works about the horrors of disease anddeath but also about hope and salvation.

Pestilence, like death, war, and famine, is a universal theme, mentionedin numerous books of the Bible and the works of Homer in antiquity. Earlyliterature, in both classical civilizations and Judeo-Christian tradition,equates plague with divine punishment for human transgressions. Unfortu-nately, no contemporary illustrations of such texts have survived—if theyever existed. Plague scenes appear late in Western art. Possible reasons for theslow development of a specific plague iconography (image description)include difficulties in characterizing the medical symptoms and, moreimportant, the absence of the disease from Europe between the eighth andfourteenth centuries. When a virulent strain of bubonic plague arrived fromAsia in the late Middle Ages, the disease remained a constant threat for thenext four hundred years. Because the pathogen that caused bubonic plaguewas not discovered until the 1890s, many unrealistic theories evolved aboutits origin and infectious nature; some of them are visualized throughout thehistory of plague art.

The study of plague iconography is unique because it has a distinctbeginning, the year 1347, when bubonic plague struck Europe with suchunprecedented force that it was later known as the Black Death. It is equallyremarkable that the visual tradition begun in the late Middle Ages continuesuntil today. Thus the value of this inquiry lies in the well-defined time frameand self-contained iconographic topic.

In this book, except when specified as bubonic plague, the terms pesti-lence and plague are used interchangeably to denote a deadly epidemic dis-ease. Since bubonic plague is the only major illness for which an intricateiconography was developed, its images present a special opportunity to study

2 IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

changing attitudes toward physical afflictions. Moreover, the value of manyplague subjects is enhanced by their firm dates or links to a specific epi-demic, contributing to our knowledge of chronology. The works discussedrange from masterpieces created by Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, P. P.Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Nicolas Poussin to minor works; however,all give important historic evidence and shed light on contemporary philoso-phies of life and death.

Images of Plague and Pestilence pursues three goals: one, to present for thefirst time an overview of various sources of plague iconography; two, to selecta few significant paintings dating from the fourteenth to twentieth centuriesand investigate their iconology (meaning of the image); and three, to high-light the most important innovative artistic works that originated during theRenaissance and the Catholic Reformation. This interdisciplinary study ofthe changing iconographic patterns and their iconological interpretationsopens “windows” to the past. The discussion of style is of secondary impor-tance. However, since the images are the primary documents, I have used theperiodization customary in art history.

Each chapter begins with comments on the intellectual background thatshaped plague images at that time. From ancient Greece through the eigh-teenth century, frequent epidemics evoked traditional religious practices andeven superstitions, and those repercussions can be observed in the visual arts.As long as people felt they were at the mercy of an unpredictable deity, out-breaks of plague often reversed progressive ideas. By the time of the eigh-teenth-century Enlightenment, bubonic plague was finally on the wane inEurope. At that point artworks dealing with the subject of pestilence showeda trend toward greater secularization.

The achievements of Jacqueline Brossollet and Henri Mollaret arerecounted in the preface. At first, many of their suggestions based on medicalfacts were rejected by museum staff and art historians alike. Today we cannotimagine plague research without their numerous publications.

The first chapter is concerned with medical questions. It incorporatesscientific knowledge gathered during the Vietnam War, when thousands ofpeople were infected with the bacillus Yersinia pestis. This section includesmedical photographs illustrating the disease’s symptoms, which can be com-pared to renderings of plague buboes and other pathological evidence foundin paintings several centuries old. Because the symptoms have not changedover the years, this comparison gives the viewer a rare opportunity to mea-sure the realism expressed in individual works of art. The reader will also beable to recognize whether the artists had firsthand knowledge of bubonic

Introduction 3

plague or merely repeated schemata. Ancient medical theories are scrutinizedfor their influence on the visual arts. Moreover, changes in religious attitudesneed to be considered in order to evaluate the reason for less realistic medicalillustrations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Chapters 2 and 3 detail the development of plague iconography, whichdrew upon literary as well as visual sources. Both sources are of equal impor-tance since in the West the concept of sister arts, poetry and painting, areessentially connected. The reciprocal influences are difficult to separate.Additionally, we have to assume that a vital oral tradition helped shape theimagery. This section of the book is intended to be used primarily as refer-ence material, presenting facts and defining terms that are referred to in laterchapters.

Numerous classical writers, in addition to Homer, describe plague epi-demics—among them Thucydides, Sophocles, Lucretius, Virgil, and Ovid.Christian authors include Procopius, Gregory of Tours, and Paul the Dea-con, who related the story of the sixth-century Justinian pandemic. GiovanniBoccaccio’s Decameron contains the most famous contemporary secularaccount of the Black Death. Geoffrey Chaucer, Giuseppe Ripamonte,Daniel Defoe, Alessandro Manzoni, and Albert Camus described later epi-demics. The most pertinent religious texts were derived from the Old andNew Testaments, Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, other hagiographicaccounts, and plague sermons. An original feature of this study is the com-parison of historic texts with later translations or interpretations that registerthe people’s rising concern about bubonic plague.

Visual plague motifs, both religious and secular, appear in many differ-ent media. This book does not examine the entire collection of knownplague objects but discusses iconographic examples from a variety of media.However, the discussion of iconological interpretations is restricted to theanalysis of paintings, drawings, and prints. Some of the plague symbols tracetheir written sources to antiquity, others to the seventh century. The year1347 constitutes a terminus post quem as artists began to invent new plagueimagery. Because of the sudden and traumatic experience of the BlackDeath, several existing themes, such as the “Dance of the Dead” (dansemacabre), “Triumph of Death,” and the “Madonna of Mercy” (Misericordia),also were adopted and later adapted for plague subjects. Most scholars arewell acquainted with Raphael’s scene of the Phrygian plague that depicts adead or dying mother with an infant at her breast. It is less well known thatthis sixteenth-century motif was not repeated in a plague context until 1631when Nicolas Poussin and his followers made it emblematic of the disease.

4 IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

For hundreds of years the cliché was regurgitated in secular and religiousworks alike, lasting into modern times. However, this figural group is by nomeans the only indicator that a subject deals with pestilence. Establishmentof a chronology for individual motifs will contribute to more accurate datingand a better understanding of yet-to-be-discovered works of art.

The four chapters that follow examine the iconological importance ofpaintings created in different time periods—the macabre Black Death of thelate Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the cerebral High Renaissance, andthe euphoric Baroque of the reformed Roman Catholic Church. Reverbera-tions in the postplague era, the esoteric Romantic period, and AIDS imagesof the twentieth century are briefly reviewed in chapter 7. The iconologicalanalysis of chapters 4 through 7 addresses the questions when, where, andabove all why plague art was produced.

The appendix includes extensive quotations from literary sources thatrelate to plague epidemics, although such quotes had to be limited to thosethat have found visual expression over the centuries. These prototypes are ofparticular importance because the experience of a pestilential epidemic trig-gers the inherent human response to rely on earlier written documents. Nomatter how distant in time, scripture, chronicles, or poetic treatment of sim-ilar subjects were frequently consulted to ease the tension and anxiety of thepeople during an outbreak of disease. These accounts extend from antiquityto modern times and make fascinating reading in themselves.

Because plague literature in general is vast, the bibliography includedhere must be selective. This study emphasizes the latest international discus-sions on plague including a variety of sources taken from Internet compila-tions and publications not readily available in the United States. Studies onplague art, on the other hand, are not as numerous as one might assume;therefore, most titles of relevant books, journal articles, and dissertationshave been cited either in the bibliography or in the endnotes. It was not pos-sible to write a book of this scope until now because much of the scholarshipis quite recent. Our knowledge has been enriched by a wealth of publicationsranging from popular essays on historic pandemics, triggered by the AIDScrisis, to original documentary evidence on demographics, the latest medicalfacts, religious practices, and more. In addition, several current scholarly arti-cles studying specific artworks in depth have produced a breakthrough in theinterpretation of plague imagery.

For discussion purposes, plague paintings are organized into three cate-gories. The first includes votive commissions that show the Trinity, the Vir-gin, and saints such as Sebastian, Gregory, Roch, and Charles Borromeo,

Introduction 5

who were invoked as healers and intercessors. Since epidemics affected awhole region rather than an individual, the votives, although the gift of a sin-gle patron, would frequently represent the entire community. Some of theseworks included accurate topographical details and architectural renderings ofthe cities petitioning God. These devotional gifts were created to assurehealth, give thanks, and avert future epidemics.

The second group, comprising sacred and profane works, describes thedevastation of the plague. They show greater diversity than ex-votos in bothdesign and function. Most of these narratives report events from the lives ofsaints who had been actively involved in comforting victims of pestilentialdiseases. Such images rarely functioned as devotional art but frequently pro-claimed didactic and polemic messages. The relatively rare secular plaguethemes generally depicted cities in the throes of an epidemic. They were dis-played in private art collections rather than in religious settings.

A third set is even more difficult to classify because its themes are highlysymbolic. Throughout the ages the word pestilence has suggested many differ-ent concepts. The late Middle Ages associated plague with eschatology. Inthe Renaissance, after the Protestant Reformation, “pestilence” served as ametaphor for heresy. In the Baroque period, Cesare Ripa included in his Ico-nologia the description of a female personification, Peste/Pestilentia, thusmaking us aware of the allegorical aspect of the illness. During the nine-teenth century, plague paintings alluded to new threats such as cholera andyellow fever. Even today, the word plague is used as an analogy for a threatunknown to or uncontrollable by medical science. In this sense it describesthe latest scourge: AIDS.

Throughout this book, the visual and literary traditions are stressed,along with select, recurring, plague-related topics that remained constant.Much of the catalogued plague art has not been previously considered beyonda literal reading. Closer examination, however, reveals changing artistic per-ceptions which depended largely on the transformation of prevailing ideas.Most important, this analysis shows that the theme of pestilence does not dealexclusively with death but touches on many aspects of people’s lives.

My interest in the depiction of plague epidemics originated in Austriaduring World War II. What impressed me most at that time was not so muchthe sheer horror of the holocaust but the resiliency of humanity. Since then Ihave continued to investigate how people of earlier periods coped underextreme pressure. I found that the survivors and the creators of plague artfrequently expressed positive sentiments; the reason for these pictorial con-ventions are explored here.

203

Index

Illustrations are indicated by bold locators.

AActa Sanctorum, 40Aesculapius, 35, 144afterlife, 69–71, 74, 132, 134, 156,

187n130AIDS, 34, 150, 152–53, 157

and Yersinia Pestis, 196n245Allegory of the Jesuit Order, 125, 126, 129animals, dying, 9–10, 26, 49, 94, 147,

174n9Apocalypse/Last Judgment, 38–39, 47, 69–

70, 97, 104, 147, 153, 157Apollo, 35, 46–47, 92, 102, 141, 144, 158Asia, 1, 7, 9, 15, 137, 175n12astronomical phenomena, 14, 47, 96–97,

132, 190n176Athens, plague of, 35

Bbacteria/bacillus, 7–8, 10–12, 15–16, 18,

173n6Belles Heures, 81, 82, 83, 84, 188n149Belsunce, Henri de (bishop), 35, 43, 64,

113, 160, 195n234Belsunce's Vow, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 143Benedict XII (pope)

Benedictus Deus, 69–71, 74theory of afterlife, 69–71, 185n118,

187n133Bertrand, J. B., 155Biblioteca Sanctorum, 40Biraben, Jean-Noel, 9Black Death, 1, 7, 9–10, 13, 45, 90, 152.

See also bubonic plague; plagueaccounts of, 3art as a psychological defense, 75and theological changes, 72–76

Blake, William, 195n239The Great Plague of London, 145, 146,

147Blessed Bernard Tolomei Comforting Victims

of the Plague, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, 120, 121

Blunt, Anthony, 109Boccaccio, Giovanni, 34

Decameron, 36, 162–64, 180n52descriptions of Black Death, 186n126

Böcklin, Arnold, Plague, 149–50, 153body and soul, 70, 113, 132Bonaparte, Napoleon, 138–41, 156, 174n7Borromean plague, 104, 107, 117. See also

epidemicsBorromeo, Charles, 6, 40, 42, 58–59, 114–

16, 155. See also plague: intercessorsquadroni, 59

Borromeo, Frederico, 155buboes, 2, 18, 103, 132, 140, 157, 173n2.

See also plague: bubo in artartistic depictions, 20–21, 23change in depiction during seventeenth

century, 109, 135change in depiction during sixteenth cen-

tury, 92, 105photographs of, 19, 22, 24and St. Roch, 48, 58, 92as symptoms of plague, 11–12

204 IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

bubonic plague. See also Black Death; plague

and AIDS, 150, 152Black Death, 9–10causes of, 14, 156diagnosis, 8, 14, 17, 149DNA, 8–9, 175n12Enlightenment attitudes toward, 107,

157fatality rate, 12and femoral infections, 21history of, 1, 7–12as modern danger, x–xiremedies, 15–17research on, ix–xisubsiding in Europe, 137symptoms of, 11transmission of, 10–11, 155, 176n12, xiivaccine, 8

burials/graves, 63, 77, 185n113Butler, Thomas, M.D., 11, 175n12

CCambi, Giovanni, 155Camus, Albert, 37, 142canon of justification, 110, 113, 157Carnival in Rome, Lingelbach, 27, 30Carracci, Lodovico, St. Charles Baptizes an

Infant in a Plague Encampment, 115–16

Castel Sant'Angelo, 52, 56–57, 83Catholic Reformation. See Counter-Refor-

mationcholera, 138, 141–42, 150Christ the Judge, Philipp Culmacher, 89ciborium, 86, 111, 115, 120Clement VI (pope), 179n46, xiiiclergy, status of, 111, 120, 157clouds, 15, 36–37, 47, 65, 158, 183n85. See

also plague: symbols/signifierscommunion, 43, 110–11, 114, 116–17,

192n195, 192n204. See also Eucha-rist

corpses, unburied, 35, 63, 132Cortona, Pietro da, St. Charles Leads the

Procession of the Holy Nail, 119, 142

Council of TrentDecree on the Arts, 108–9implications for plague imagery, 105–6,

108–9, 114, 120, 134, 157Counter-Reformation, 108–11, 123, 125,

157, 159Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, Blessed Bernard

Tolomei Comforting Victims of the Plague, 120, 121

Crivelli, Carlo, 21Culmacher, Philipp, Christ the Judge, 89Cyprian (bishop of Carthage), 40–41

Ddanse macabre (Totentanz, Dance of the

Dead), 3, 43–45, 132, 134, 158, 182n80

Dante, 69, 128David, Jacques L., 138death

“bad,” 74, 109“good,” 73, 134sudden plague deaths, 32, 56, 64, 88,

177n19Death and the Priest, Hans Holbein, 122Defoe, Daniel, Journal of the Plague Year, 37,

147, 163, xivDelaunay, Jules-Elie, Plague in Early Chris-

tian Rome, 142, 144diagnoses, 149

difficulties of, 8, 14, 17Diana (sister of Apollo), 46, 102, 185n112disciplinati (flagellants), 47, 81, 82, 105,

188n151Doctor's Visit to a Plague Victim, 28dogs, 10, 57, 64, 100, 176n15Dürer, Albrecht, 87–88, 150, 152

Eemblem books, 36England, 72–73, 114, 144–49, 153Enlightenment, 2, 107, 157epidemics

Athenean plague, 35, 173n3Black Death, 1, 7, 9–10, 13, 45, 90, 152Borromean plague, 104, 107, 117

Index 205

epidemics continuedDavidian plague, 47, 52, 100Egyptian plague, 138Epirus (Aegina), 35, 62Florence, 34, 36, 72, 76Justinian plague, 7, 12, 53London’s Great Plague, 16, 37, 107,

145–49, 153Manzonian plague, 107Marseilles, 17, 37, 64, 107, 138, 142,

155–56, 195n234Naples, 17, 64, 107, 132, 190n176Phrygian plague, 3, 48Rome, 14, 55, 83, 91, 94, 107Vienna, 42, 118, 178n30

eschatological themes, 96–98, 128, 147, 150, 153, 156–58. See also Apoca-lypse/Last Judgment

Eucharist, 43, 158, 192n193, 192n195. See also communion; sacraments; viati-cum

importance in plague imagery, 88, 90liturgical objects, 111and Protestant Reformation, 110–11

Eusebius (bishop of Caesarea), 41ex-votos/votives, 43, 45, 60, 98, 108, 131,

135, 137–38, 156devotional prints, 60, 182n79

Ffear, 8, 18, 37, 39, 73, 109, 139, 156female plague saints, 60Flagellants, Limbourg Brothers, 82fleas, 8–12, 21, 27, 152, 173n6, xiiFlorence, 34, 36, 72, 76France, 36, 57, 64, 73, 123, 138, 141funerals, 63, 73-74, 86, 113Fürst, P., Plague Doctor in Rome, 27, 29

GGalen, 17–18, 154Gérôme, Jean-Léon, Belsunce's Vow, 141–

42, 143, 153, 195n234Giordano, Luca, St. Gennaro Frees Naples

from the Plague, 21, 25, 132, 134Giussano, Giovanni Pietro, The Life of St.

Charles Borromeo, 163Golden Legend, 14, 39–40, 156

Gregory I (pope), 56, 81, 83, 86nineteenth-century republication, 142and plague angels, 52plague attributes, 46–47, 181n66, xivSt. Sebastian, 55, 77, 79–80

Gozzi Altarpiece, Titian, 99Great Plague of London, William Blake, 146Gregory I (pope), 41, 56–57, 74, 155,

181n66in Belles Heures, 81–86represented in art, 56–57

Grimm, Jürgen, 33, 36, 38, 180n51Gros, Antione-Jean, Napoleon in the Pest-

house of Jaffa, 138, 139, 141, 153, 194n230, xiv

Hhealth, public, 12–14, 16, 150, 155health boards, 12–13herb/medicinals. See remedies/precautionsheresy, association with plague, 5, 79–80,

125, 128–30, 142, 144–45, 157–58Hippocrates, 17, 154historiography, 152, 158, 173n1, ix–xivHolbein, Hans, 107, 152

Death and the Priest, 122Homer, Iliad, 35, 154, 164hospitals, 13, 16, 106, 113-14

Iiconography, definition, 1iconology, definition, 2

JJanssens, Victor Honoré, 26, xiiJesuits. See Society of JesusJustinian plague, 3, 7–8, 12, 36, 40, 53,

159, 183n96. See also epidemics

KKing David, 38, 54–55, 100, 118, 154–55,

183n98Kircher, Athanasuis, 155Klinger, Max, Plague, 149–50, 151, 153

206 IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

Lleprosy, 18, 154Lieferinxe, Josse, St. Sebastian triptych, 20,

76–77, 78, 79–80Limbourg brothers

Flagellants, 82St. Gregory's Procession, 85Vision of St. Michael, 84

Lingelbach, Carnival in Rome, 30Livy, 35London, 16, 37, 107, 145–49, 153Louis XIV, 141Lucretius, De rerum natura, 14–15, 37Lutheran Eucharistic Feast, Otto Wagenfeldt,

112Luti, Benedetto, St. Charles Administers

Extreme Unction, 117

Mmacabre, 37, 43, 64, 69, 132Madonna di Foligno, Raphael, 93Mâle, Emile, 158, ix–x, xiiManzoni, Alessandro, The Betrothed, 37Manzonian plague, 107. See also epidemicsMarseilles, 17, 37, 64, 107, 138, 142, 155–

56, 195n234Marshall, Louise, 74–75, 102, 158Martin, A. Lynn, 9, 129Meiss, Millard, 72, 76, 186n125memento mori, 47, 69, 88, 90, 123, 152miasma, 15, 36–37, 48, 65, 97, 118, 120,

150, 174n9, 177n26, 183n90Mignard, Pierre

Plague of Epirus, 62, 63St. Charles Administers the Viaticum to a

Plague Victim, 51, 59, 114–15, 120, 123–25, 192n200

Milan, 13, 104, 107, 155Miracles of St. Francis Xavier, Peter Paul

Rubens, 127Misericordia (Madonna of Mercy), 3, 45,

53, 80, 187n147, xiMollaret, Henri, 158Morbetto, Marcantonio Raimondi, 49

NNaples, 17, 64, 107, 132, 190n176Napoleon in the Pesthouse of Jaffa, Antoine-

Jean Gros, 139Netherlands, 123, 125, 145Nicholas of Tolentino, 74–75, 86, 87,

189n156Nikopoeia, 53, 96Niobe, 102Noah, 42, 190n176nursing orders, 12, 55, 113–14, 134–35,

157

OOgata, Masanori, 8, 174n12ostentatio vulneris, 48, 88Ovid, Metamorphoses, 35, 62, 144, 164–67

PPallione del Voto, Guido Reni, 133Paolo, Giovanni di, St. Nicholas Saving Flor-

ence, 87Paris, 15, 43, 138, 141–42Passover, 38Pasteur, Louis, 6, 177n26Pepys, Samuel, Diary, 37, 147, 166–68Pestbilder, 46. See also plague: symbols/signi-

fiersPestblätter, 43, 60, 61, 182n79Peste, as allegory, 36–37, 65, 66, 180n58.

See also plague, personification ofpestilence, 1, 5, 33–34, 38–39, 45, 180n50.

See also plagueartists’ fascination with, 153and Byzantine icons, 53

Petrarca, FrancescoPlague Victims, 26Triumph of Death, 36

Piazza Mercatello during the Plague of 1656, Micco Spadaro, 27, 31

plague, 180n50. See also Black Death; bubonic plague

and animal mortality, 9–10, 26, 49, 94, 147, 174n9

Index 207

plague continuedart, religious functions

canonization campaigns, 57, 59, 86, 121, 125, 128, 134, 157

commemorative, 6, 80, 132, 182n80memento mori, 47, 69, 88, 90, 123,

152as political device, 123, 134, 140–41,

157, 194n233propagation of Catholic faith, 129,

135, 152, 157as psychological defense, 75, 156sacramental images, 110–11, 114–18votive, 43, 45, 60, 98, 108, 131, 135,

137–38, 156bubo in art

axillary bubo, 11, 21, 22, 140cervical bubo, 11, 20, 79femoral bubo, 11, 21, 24, 58, 103

causes of, 8–9, 14–15, 154–55Christ’s suffering, 75–77, 134, 156,

188n151confraternities, 55, 60, 97, 103, 105,

156, 188n151, xiiidiscourses, 13–15doctors, 17, 27, 28–29early accounts of, 35–36historical accounts of, 9, 154–55, 159,

174n9intercessors, 40, 53–54, 156, 181n68, xii

Blessed Bernard Tolomei, 120, 193n211

Christ, 38, 41, 48, 80, 131Christian martyrs, 46, 53King David, 38, 54–55, 100, 118,

154–55, 183n98St. Adrian, 53St. Camille de Lellis, 113St. Charles Borromeo, 6, 40–41, 58–

59, 114–16, 155St. Christopher, 46, 53St. Francesca Romana, 60St. Francis Xavier, 98, 125, 129–30St. Gregory I, 41, 56–57, 74, 155,

181n66St. Ignatius, 126, 128–29, 132

St. Michael, 52, 83, 88, 184n102St. Nicholas of Tolentino, 74–75, 86,

189n156St. Roch, 40, 48, 57–58, 65St. Rosalia, 60, 62, 184n107St. Sebastian, 46–47, 55–56, 60, 61St. Thecla, 53, 60Trinity, 51–52Virgin Mary, 48, 52–53, 86, 97, 130,

183n95, 191n181and modern medicine, 7–9, 156paintings, 4–5

allegories, 64–65, 66–67, 108narrative/history, 62–68, 108in northern Europe, 104, 123, 125

personification of (allegorical figures of), 36, 64–65, 108, 125, 135, 157–58, xi

precautions, 15–17, 86–87. See also rem-edies/precautions

psychological responses to, 65, 75, 140, 149, 154–59

sanitary cordon, 17, 178n30scholarship, Brossollet and Mollaret, 158sculpture, 21, 46, 54, 68, 159sermons, 40–43symbols/signifiers

angels, 52, 54, 56–57, 65, 80, 102, 142, 157

animal carcasses, 26, 49, 94architectural motifs, 47–48, 95arrows, 35, 46–47, 54–55, 76, 80,

128, 157astrological signs, 14, 47, 96–97, 132,

190n176clouds, 15, 36–37, 47, 65, 158,

183n85corpses/cadavers, 35, 48–49, 63, 149–

50, 157death/skull, 47, 54, 64, 149–50display of wounds, 26, 48, 58, 76, 88,

100fig plant, 18, 47, 98, 158flagellum, 47, 54gestures/poses, 47–48, 65, 129, 141,

158

208 IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

plague, symbols/signifiers continuedstalks of wheat, 54sword, 46, 52, 54, 88, 142wind, 118, 150, 158

treatment of, 17–18, 26–27, 28–31urban conditions, 12–13, 27, 31, 147

Plague, Max Klinger, 151Plague at Ashdod, Nicholas Poussin, 50Plague Doctor in Rome, P. Fürst, 27, 29Plague in Early Christian Rome, Jules-Elie

Delaunay, 144Plague of Epirus, Pierre Mignard, 63Plague Scene, 21Plague Victims, Francesco Petrarca, 26pneumonic plague, 7, 12, 15, 18, 26, 69Pourquoi la Peste?, xiiiPoussin, Nicholas, Plague at Ashdod, 39, 48,

50, 64, 129–31, 152, 183n90Protestant Reformation, 91, 108, 110–11,

114, 116–17, 125, 159psychomachia, 71, 77Pulex irritans. See fleasPurgatory, 109, 159, 187n133

in the fourteenth century, 74and plague, 74–75, 86

Qquarantines, 15, 17, 137–38, 178n30

RRaimondi, Marcantonio, Morbetto, 49, 92,

95, 106Raphael

Madonna di Foligno, 92, 93, 96–98, 105and plague gestures, 48Plague of Phrygia, 3, 35, 49, 62, 92–95,

105, 131, 149rats, 9, 39, 152, 174n12remedies/precautions against plague

physical, 14–17spiritual, 86–87

Reni, Guido, Pallione de Voto, 131–32, 133Rescued from the Plague, London 1655,

Frank Topham, 148Ripa, Cesare

Iconologia, 5, 36, 65, 167, xi

Peste/Pestilentia, 66Ripamonte, Giuseppe, 65, 155Roman Art Academy of St. Luke, 109Romanticism, 137–38Rome, 14, 55, 83, 91, 94, 107Rubens, Peter Paul

The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier, 125, 127, 129–31

St. Roch, 65, 67Rubric (Rituale Romanum), 43, 115, 118,

191n189

Ssacraments

confession/penance, 73, 87, 110–11, 116–17

Eucharist/communion, 43, 110–11, 114, 116–17, 192n195, 192n204

infant baptism, 115last rites/extreme unction, 87, 110, 117,

192n193salvation, 74, 108–11, 156–58scapegoat, Jews as, 13, 177n22Schefer, Jean Louis, 37Schröter, Elizabeth, 96–97, 158Schutzmantel, 80septicemic plague, 7, 12, 18, 26Siena, 120Silk Road, 15Simond, P. L., 147, 173n6, xiisin, 71, 154smallpox, 18, 128, 173n2, 174n11Society of Jesus, 126, 128–29, 135Sophocles, Oedipus the King, 35Spadaro, Micco, The Piazza Mercatello dur-

ing the Plague of 1656, 31St. Charles Administers Extreme Unction,

Benedetto Luti, 117St. Charles Administers the Viaticum to a

Plague Victim, Josef Zirckler, 124St. Charles Administers the Viaticum to a

Plague Victim, Pierre Mignard, 51St. Charles Borromeo. See Borromeo,

CharlesSt. Charles Leads Procession of the Holy Nail,

Pietro da Cortona, 119

Index 209

St. Christopher, 46St. Gennaro Frees Naples from the Plague,

Luca Giordano, 25St. Gregory. See Gregory I (pope)St. Gregory's Procession, Limbourg Brothers,

85St. Michael, 52, 88, 184n102St. Nicholas Saving Florence, Giovanni di

Paolo, 87St. Roch, 40, 48, 57–58, 65

represented in art, 21, 57–58, 104St. Roch, Peter Paul Rubens, 67St. Roch Cured by an Angel, 23St. Roch Ministering to Plague Victims, Tin-

toretto, 103St. Sebastian, 46–47, 52, 55–56

and AIDS, 152intercession in Pavia, 56, 77, 78in plague votives, 80represented in art, 55, 60, 61, 76–77, 78

St. Sebastian Intercedes during the Plague, Josse Lieferinxe, 20, 78

Ttalisman, 60thaumaturge, 53, 65. See also plague: inter-

cessorsTheriac, 18, 178n32Thucydides, 154Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian

War, 35Tintoretto, St. Roch Ministering to Plague

Victims, 102, 103, 106, 120, 140Titian, Gozzi Altarpiece, 98, 99Tolomei, Bernard, 120, 193n211Topham, Frank W., Rescued from the Plague,

London 1665, 147, 148, 149–50transi, 64, 71, 132, 134, 158travel restrictions, 17Tridentine theology. See Council of TrentTrinity, 51–52Triumph of Death, 3, 36, 45, 69, 70, 71–72

VVasari, Giorgio

St. Roch Altarpiece, 100, 105, 157

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, 101

Venice, 15, 57, 98, 103vera pestis. See bubonic plagueviaticum, 86, 110–11, 115, 117Vienna, 42, 118, 178n30Vietnam War, 2, 7, 26, 34Virgil, Aeneid, 35–36, 91–92, 94–95, 168Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints,

Giorgio Vasari, 101Virgin Mary, 48, 52, 86, 130, 183n95,

191n181. See also plague: interces-sors

as Apocalyptic Woman, 53, 97, 131, 190n179

Madonna of Constantinople, 53Misericordia (Madonna of Mercy), 3, 45,

53, 80, 187n147Nikepoia, 53, 96

Vision of St. Michael, Limbourg Brothers, 84

Voragine, Jacobus de, Golden Legend, 169–71

votives. See ex-votos/votives

WWagenfeldt, Otto, Lutheran Eucharistic

Feast, 112Wobreck, Simon de, Palermo Delivered from

Pestilence, 104–5women

exposure to infection, 155and nursing, 12, 55, 113–14, 134–35,

157as plague saints, 60pregnant, 31, 179n49, 188n149Virgin Mary, 48, 52–53, 86, 97, 130,

183n95, 191n181World Health Organization, 7

XXenopsylla cheopis. See fleas

Yyellow fever, 5, 138, 173n2Yersin, Alexandre, 8, 149–50, 173n6

210 IMAGES OF PLAGUE AND PESTILENCE

Yersinia pestis (Pastuerella pestis), 2, 7, 8, 10, 18, 156, 175n12, 196n245, xi

ZZirckler, Josef, St. Charles Administers the

Viaticum to a Plague Victim, 124

Scripture References

See also Appendix

Exod. 12:29-33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 Sam. 5:4-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 1292 Sam. 24:10-25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 531 Chron. 21:1-28. . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 54, 991 Chron. 22-28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 Chron. 3:1-2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Job 25:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Job 27:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Psalms 37:2-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 46Ezek. 14:21-22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Matt. 24:32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Matt. 24:36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38–39Matt. 24:37-38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Mark 13:28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Luke 21:29-31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Rev. 6:1-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Rev. 6:1-17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Rev. 8:1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Rev. 12:1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Rev. 15:1-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Rev. 16:2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Rev. 18:8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39